A simulation comparison of group technology with traditional job shop manufacturing

Abstract

A simulation model of an actual job shop was used to compare group technology with traditional job shop manufacturing. The experiment compared shops which had four different layouts, designed to emphasize different features of traditional job shops and group technology shops, and four distributions of demand for end items. The group technology shops exhibited superior performance in terms of average move time and average set-up time. The traditional job shops had superior performance in queue related variables (average queue length, average waiting time, work-in-process inventory, etc.). This was caused by group technology's dedication of machines. The effects of the queue related variables outweighed the effects of average move time and average set-up time: the average flow time was shorter in the traditional job shop than in the group technology shops.